Construction firm Beard celebrates 'topping out' at Bristol hotel and supermarket scheme

By Peter Davison

1 August 2023

Share

The Business Magazine article image for: Construction firm Beard celebrates 'topping out' at Bristol hotel and supermarket scheme

How the Fox Den Road development will look

A major multi-million pound new hotel and retail development in north Bristol has reached a key stage in its construction with a topping out ceremony on the hotel’s roof.

The team at Beard Bristol started work last year on the creation of a Premier Inn, Beefeater Restaurant, Aldi superstore and a Costa Coffee drive-thru on Fox Den Road in Stoke Gifford area, close to Parkway station.

The development also includes associated infrastructure, a public park and public art, and is on track to be completed by Spring 2024.

Beard completes £3.4 million transformation of iconic Royal West of England Academy building

The completion of the 103-bedroom hotel’s concrete frame was celebrated by the development team, including Baylis Estates, Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB), Stride Treglown, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), the Waterman Group and Hoare Lea.

Sustainability is at the core of the scheme and the hotel and restaurant will meet the BREEAM Very Good standard for environmental and sustainability quality.

The significant project relies on close collaboration across multiple construction disciplines - the design work has been carried out by Bristol-based Stride Treglown, project management is by JLL, the Waterman Group is carrying out the structural engineering, Hoare Lea is the M&E consultant and RLB the cost consultant.

Previous projects completed by Beard for Baylis Estates include the 1,300-seater, Planet Ice rink at The Venue Leisure Park at Cribbs Causeway.

Matt Cooper, Bristol director at Beard, said: " We are pleased to celebrate this construction milestone with all our project partners.

"We look forward to delivering this exciting and significant development that will bring modern new accommodation, leisure and retail facilities to an already thriving and growing area of Bristol.

Visit Hampshire Biz News for bright, upbeat and positive business news from the county

Henry Blunden, senior associate at RLB, said: The Fox Den way development is a fantastic regeneration scheme that we're pleased to be supporting.

"The topping out ceremony for the Premier Inn marks another milestone as we move into the fit-out stage.

"We are looking forward to working with all the stakeholders to deliver this great scheme for the North Bristol area."

By Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country.

An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts.

Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.